


Escape!

by clgfanfic



Category: Alias Smith and Jones
Genre: Gen, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-21
Updated: 2012-10-21
Packaged: 2017-11-16 18:56:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/542745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clgfanfic/pseuds/clgfanfic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Heyes and Curry run away from the orphanage.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Escape!

**Author's Note:**

> Originally published in the zine Just You, Me and the Governor #3. Published under the pen name Lynn Gill.

          Hannibal Heyes held the window open while his cousin snaked through, then handed out two large grain bags to the waiting thirteen-year-old.  The blond looked nervous, or maybe it was scared, Hannibal wasn't sure.  Either way the feelings would be appropriate.  If they got caught…  The older boy decided not to think about it any further.

          With the bags taken care of, the fifteen-year-old Heyes eased his leg out so he could straddle the window sill.  For five years he and his cousin had used the portal as their route to late night swimming trips, secret meetings with girls, and general hell-raising, but tonight it was a door to freedom.

          He leaned out and lowered the sill as far as he could.  Letting his leg slide out, Hannibal balanced on his elbows and closed the window before he dropped down to join Jed.

          "Come on," he whispered to the blond, taking one of the heavy bags.

 

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

 

          They ran with exaggerated motions, trying to ensure their silence.  Jed, holding his bag in both hands, tripped and fell.

          Hannibal stopped and scowled at his cousin.  The boy was all arms and legs, and each of the limbs had a mind and direction of its own.  The result was a very gangly, uncoordinated partner with which to try and make an escape from the Valparaiso Home for Wayward Boys.

          "Would you be careful," the older boy whispered hotly.

          "Sorry," Jed, replied, embarrassed.  "I tripped."

          "Here."  Hannibal handed over the second grain sack.  "You stay here by the trees and wait for my signal.  I'll go make sure ol' Mr. Applegate's not sleepin' in the barn again."

          Jed nodded, then watched his cousin sprint to the white-washed structure.  He envied the coordination an extra two years gave the older boy, and sighed.  _Soon_ , he thought.  _I'll get grown up real soon._

 

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

 

          Heyes peered around the corner of the weather barn and motioned to his cousin to join him.  He had to wave twice before the younger boy saw the signal in the dark, moonless black of the Texas spring night that surrounded them.

          _At least it's warm, and the thaw should be over_ , Hannibal thought.  He thanked the fates that had given him a reasonable batch of brains to think with.  The teen knew he and his cousin were going to need all the fancy thinking he could come up with if they were going to survive out on their own.  The very thought scared Hannibal to his toes, but anything was better than staying at the Home.

          Jed Curry, bent under the burden of the two grain sacks – filled with their worldly possessions, stolen food, and two canteens of water – but he scurried over to join him.

          _Tonight's the night_ , Jed thought.  They were finally going to leave this place at last.  Heyes had promised him over a year ago that they would run away, and he hadn't let the older boy forget that promise.  He'd had enough of the cruel treatment and constant fear.

 

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

 

          The cousins slipped into the dark interior of the barn.  Dropping the two sacks, Jed watched as his cousin walked over to the stalls.  Opening one, he led out an ancient bay gelding that was the general laughing stock in the orphanage, and in the local town.  The horse's lop ears and drooping lower lip both quivered as he walked.  Swayback, and with turned out front hooves, Jed thought the animal was the ugliest thing he had seen still walking on four legs.

          "Whatcha doin'?" he whispered to Hannibal.

          "We can't leave here on foot or they'll catch us for sure.  It's too slow," Hannibal explained as he tried to brush off some of the hay and dirt that the gelding had managed to smear across the top of his hind quarters.

          Jed considered that for a moment.  "But, stealin' a horse…?  They can hang us for that, you know.  And Mrs. Sourland's sure gonna—"

          "They won't care 'cause we're takin' ol' Sebastian here."  The bay swished his tail, catching the teenager across the face with the stringy strands of black, and Hannibal poked the animal in its protruding ribs.

          Jed glared at his cousin through the murky darkness.  "I thought you said we was takin' a _horse_.  That old bag o' bones is headed for glue.  You heard Mrs. Sourland."

          "Exactly."

          "Do you really know what we're doing?"

          "Of course I do.  If they're ready to sell Sebastian to Mr. Miller, why should they be upset about us takin' him?  I'm leaving 'em two dollars – been savin' that ever since ol' Sourpuss said she was goin' to sell him.  That's what Mr. Miller said he'd pay, so she won't have no call to complain a lick."

          "I still don't like it.  I can walk faster than that bag 'o bones.  I know I can."

          Ignoring his younger cousin, Hannibal set about tossing the oldest saddle blanket across the old bay's bowed back.  Next, he took down an equally old army saddle that one of the boys had found tossed out by the saddler in town.

          Jed watched, his brow wrinkled.  Sebastian, having been parted from a saddle for several years, and not inclined to re-experience the sensation, sucked in a deep breath and held it as Hannibal pulled the half-rotted cinch tight.  He wondered if his cousin would see the trick the old horse was pulling on him.         Hannibal stepped back to survey his handiwork, then patted the horse's neck. Sebastian swung his head around to look at the dark-headed boy, large, weepy brown eyes blinking innocently.  Heyes smiled sweetly and punched his knee up into the gelding's stomach.  Sebastian belched loudly and coughed while the boy tightened the cinch.

          Jed smiled.

 

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

 

          "You sure there ain't another way to do this?"

          "No," the dark-haired boy said.  "Now, are you gonna stand there watching, or are you gonna help me tie those sacks down?"

          The blond carried the two filled grain bags over, then helped his cousin tie them across the old bay's slopping withers.  Sebastian coughed again and stomped a hind foot, shaking his head from side to side as if to tell them he had no intentions of leaving that nice warm barn.

          "Hannibal, I _can_ walk faster than this horse," Jed whispered when they finished.

          "Yeah, me, too."

          "Then why are we takin' him?  They'll catch us for sure on this ol' windbag."

          Sebastian coughed to punctuate the sentence.

          "Not the way I got it figured, Kid."

          "And how you got it figured?"

          "We might be able to walk faster 'n ol' Sebastian here, but he can walk a lot farther than we can in a day."

          "So?"

          "So, I figure they'll be looking for us to head back to Kansas."

          "Why?"

          "'Cause that's where we came from, o' course."

          "Don't make much sense to me, seein' as how there ain't nothing left there for us."

          "I know that, but I don't think they do.  'Sides, I told a couple of the boys about us havin' kin there, and us wantin' to try 'n' find 'em.  But we won't be going that way.  We'll go west, instead – maybe up to Wyoming.  I figure we ought to get a couple of days head start before they figure out we ain't going to Kansas.  By that time we ought to be able to hide our trail, 'cause ol' Sebastian here'll get us up into the hills by then."

          "Sounds okay.  But I sure hope you're right.  I don't like thinkin' about what they'll do to us if they catch us."

          "Jed, have I let you down yet?"

          "No."

          "Well then, why are you worryin'?"

          "Guess it's like Mama used to say… it's in my nature."

          "Well, put your nature up on this horse and we'll get it out of here."

          "Give me a boost?"

          Hannibal bent his leg.  Jed stepped on his cousin's thigh and started to scramble up onto the gelding's back when the horse casually stepped sideways.

          Losing his balance, the blond fell.  Sebastian grunted and tossed his head in a silent horse laugh.

          "I can see you two are gonna get along real good," Hannibal whispered, walking over to take down an old bridle and replaced Sebastain's worn halter with it.  Tying the gelding to one of the support posts, he helped his cousin on and then handed one of the reins up.  Untying the horse, Heyes used the other rein to lead the gelding over to the door of the barn.

 

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

 

          _It's just after midnight_ , the boy thought as he looked out at the dark landscape.  The rooms of sleeping boys were quiet, and he searched for some pang of guilt or sadness over leaving the place him and his cousin had called home for the last five years.  There was none.

          _Well_ , he thought, _no more bad food, no more threats about gettin' sent to the work farm, no more whippins, or Mrs. Sourland yellin' at us all the time, or Mr. Appplegate using that paddle on us, or the bigger boys beatin' up on us and takin' our things…  I'm gonna make a good life for the two of us.  Somehow_ …

          "Hannibal?"

          "Yeah?"

          "Are we goin' or not?"

          "Yeah, we're goin'."  He looked up at the horse and shook his head.  "You better not up and die on us," he told Sebastian.  The gelding grunted, coughed, and tossed his head.  It was time to go – time to start a new life.  The dark-haired teenager wondered what it would be like.

          "You really think we can make it on our own?" Jed asked.

          "We'll make it."

          Sebastian tossed his head and used his long Roman nose to push Hannibal out of the barn.

          Jed laughed softly.  "I guess ol' windbag here wants to run away, after all.  I figured he'd be too lazy."

          "Yeah, I guess so," Hannibal said, rubbing his shoulder.  "Well, here we go.  We're gonna have a good life, Jed.  I promise.  Ma and Pa would skin us for sure if we didn't stick to the straight 'n' narrow, but I don't know…"

          "What?"

          "We'll see.  We'll just do what we gotta do, and not hurt nobody we don't have to."

          Sebastian raised his head and stared intently at the boy, then snorted.

          "And what d' ya mean by that?" Hannibal asked huffily.  "I got it all figured out."

          Sebastian stuck his neck out, snaking his head toward Hannibal, causing the teen to jump back.  Cocking his head to one side, the gelding sucked in a deep breath and then proceeded to execute a huge yawn that expressed his feeling of the boy's good intentions.

          Hannibal tried to suppress the grin that puckered at the corners of his mouth. "Well, okay, so maybe I had me a thought or two about us takin' another way of life."  The bay tossed his head.  "It might be a mite more profitable."

          Sebastian tossed his head in agreement.

          "Heyes, would you quit talkin' to this horse and get movin'?"

          "Come on," he said, tugging at the rein.

          The bay shuffled out into the dark.

          "One way or another, we'll be together," Hannibal concluded, looking up at his cousin.

          "Promise?" Jed asked.

          "I promise."


End file.
